He walked up to me. “That’s not it.”
He was right, that wasn’t it. How he knew that, don’t ask me but it was like he had a cord and he’d plugged it into me the minute he first laid eyes on me. It had been that way since the start. This freaked me out and made me feel centered and safe al at the same time. Don’t ask me how it did this, I couldn’t tel you that either.
“It’s nothing,” I said. “I need to cal Daisy.” Surprisingly, he let it go, saying he had his own cal s to make.
I cal ed Daisy and she told me she was fine and not to worry about her.
“They f**ked with the wrong girl when they f**ked with me. Mark my words,” she threatened.
I marked them, she sounded serious. Daisy might be sweet-as-pie and cute-as-a-button but I got the definite sense she could open one major can of whoop ass.
* * * * *
Hank’s house had three bedrooms. The master, at the side of the house next to the kitchen with a smal , three quarter bathroom attached, and there were two bedrooms at the back, off the living room, separated by a ful bath. One of these rooms was what appeared to be a weight room-slash-junk room, made more so by my boxes and suitcases.
Annette and Jason had brought my stashed clothing and also packed up most of my clothes, shoes, my jewelry case, my high school yearbooks, photo albums and some picture frames fil ed with photos of family, and friends and carted it al out to Denver.
Apparently, they thought I was going to stay for a while.
The other bedroom was Hank’s office. It had an old comfy looking couch, a table with TV, a desk, his computer and a bag fil ed with bats that was lumpy at the bottom (with what appeared to be softbal s) sitting in the corner. I figured that room was his lair. He’d disappeared there when I cal ed Daisy and I didn’t disturb him.
After I cal ed Daisy, I got undressed and ready for bed, found Hank’s CDs in the TV room, picked “Born to Run” (because I was in Hank’s house and that demanded Springsteen) and Shamus and I settled in with my lilac, embossed stationery.
I had set aside my stationery, was amusing myself (not) by thinking how my life was certifiably f**ked and “She’s the One” had just started playing when Hank arrived.
He stopped at the side of the bed and stared down at me. He did this for a while; so long, it made me uncomfortable.
“What?” I asked.
“Been waitin’ a long time to meet the girl in this song.” I felt my body stil at the importance of what he just said.
So did Shamus, his head came up and he looked over at Hank too.
The lyrics to this song weren’t cryptic, even so somehow to me they col ided with the thundering, unbelievably cool music that told what I considered the real story; starting expectantly and then exploding and then drawing out to a beautiful, vibrating cl**ax.
Every girl would secretly want to be “the one” even though she might lie to herself that she did not. It was a man’s view of the woman he desired, and even loved: bitter, sweet, defiant, admiring and f**king sexy as hel .
Regardless of al that, the chorus was a repeat of “she’s the one”, present tense, which said it al .
“Whisky,” I said quietly because I didn’t know what else to say.
He tugged off his t-shirt, dropped it on the floor and turned out the lamp. I heard rustling in the dark while he took off the rest of his clothes and then the bed moved as he got on it.
He lay down beside me but didn’t touch me and we both stayed stil in the dark.
I waited for him to touch me, turn into me, something, but he didn’t and Shamus settled his head on my bel y again.
To cover my confusion (and disappointment, if I was honest) I asked, “What’s the deal with Daisy’s husband, Marcus?”
Hank answered, “He’s bad news. Runs guns, has a stable of girls and deals drugs as a hobby.” I got up on my elbow and turned, looking down at his shadow in the dark, wondering if I should laugh. “You’re joking,” I said and I real y hoped he was.
“Nope,” he replied and my hope died.
Holy cow.
I didn’t want Daisy to be married to a bad guy. I real y liked Daisy. I wanted Daisy to be married to someone like Hank.
I asked, “Wel , how does that work, with Daisy being one of the clan?”